


Day 5: Apocalypse

by GemmaRose



Series: FMA Rarepair Week 2017 [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Gen, Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 12:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12211503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: You make strange allies, when the world is ending.





	Day 5: Apocalypse

“Young Lord!” Ranfan called, using one of the monsters as a springboard to leap up to the awning of a shop for a better vantage point. “Young Lord!” she looked around frantically, heart pounding in her chest. She should’ve known better than to take her eyes off him for so much as a second, especially with unnatural beings roaming the streets as they were. “Young Lord!” she shouted, jumping up to the building’s roof. The yellow jacket Fullmetal’s brother had transmuted him as a parting gift should’ve been easy to spot amongst the dark and desaturated buildings, but no matter how she looked she couldn’t see him.

If the monsters got her now, Grandfather would surely kill her again in the afterlife. It was bad enough she’d lost track of the Chang princess in the initial chaos of the sky splitting open, but to misplace the prince she’d sworn her life to defending? To leave him alone and vulnerable when every day, more monsters emerged from the bleeding wound which marred the heavens? That was active failure of her duty.

She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, calling out for Ling as she went and scouring the streets with her eyes for the slightest flash of yellow, the smallest sign of another living being. Smaller towns like this one were largely deserted, so any locals who had survived would be hardy enough to help her search for her missing prince. Their willingness may be another story, but a kunai to the throat was usually incentive enough to change someone’s mind.

A flicker of movement in her peripheral vision made Ranfan stop, and she turned her head to focus on it. Small, dark particulates drifted in the wind, like motes of ash or greasy smoke. Smoke meant fire, fire meant people. She leapt across the street, and made her way over to the alley the smoke was coming from. It seemed to be coming from a dumpster, which firmly ruled out it being an accident. The immediate area was clear of monsters, so she dropped down to street level and knocked gently on the lid, which was propped open with an empty carton. “I’m not a monster, so don’t attack me.” she said, and lifted the lid.

A pair of dark eyes stared up at her, purple irises cutting twin rings out of the blackness. Geometric red lines covered its body, inasmuch as it could be said to have one, as it seemed to be little more than gently smoking pudding with eyes huddling in a glass bowl. Ranfan dropped the lid and jumped back, hand flying to her most readily available knife. Now that it had seen her, it would try to attack her. That was what the monsters from the sky wound did, attacked humans.

“Wait a second.” a voice said from inside the trash, and Ranfan nearly lowered her knife. Monsters weren’t capable of speech, but this thing was clearly not human, so what was it? “I recognise you.” the voice continued, strangely familiar underneath the distorting echo of the dumpster. This must be some kind of trick, some previously unknown power of the monsters. She had never seen this thing before in her life.

“You’re the chick that prince brat never shut up about. You and your gramps saved my ass in Central.”

Ranfan was across the alley with the lid up in an instant, staring down at the thing in the bowl again. Now that she looked, its red markings were slightly familiar. She had seen them on the face of the homunculus which controlled Ling’s body, when it fought the Fuhrer. “Greed?” she breathed, and it grinned.

“The one and only.”

She reached into the trash bin and picked up the bowl, removing Greed from the pile of detritus. “The Young Lord told me you died.”

“Y’know, I’m pretty sure I did?” Greed chuckled. “But wherever I went, it opened up and dropped me back in this world. Pretty raw deal, though. I’ve got nothing, not even a body.”

Ranfan frowned. If Greed had returned, then what of the other homunculi? Much as she would love to avenge Grandfather’s death herself, she didn’t like the idea of that monster being in the same world as Ling while he was on his own. 

“I need one, though.” he said, drawing Ranfan back to the present. “If a monster finds me like this, I’m toast.”

Ranfan considered the bowl of homunculus. She didn’t like Greed much, but in the wake of the Promised Day Ling had been sad to lose him. Perhaps bringing the homunculus with would please him, when she found him again. “I won’t let you have the Young Lord’s body again.” she said firmly.

“Please, even with my help he’s an 8 at best.” Greed scoffed. “No, what I need is souls. Once I have a few of those in me, I can regenerate my original form.”

Ranfan grimaced. Perhaps it would be best to leave Greed here and simply never tell Ling about this encounter.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Greed said, sounding almost placating. “But I don’t want souls from live humans, those are too much trouble to collect individually. I want a philosopher’s stone.”

“The stones were used up repairing Central.” Ranfan frowned, reciting the lie she’d heard given to the media.

“Ha!” Greed barked out a laugh. “Nice try, sister, but I can sense one in this city. Now, you can take me to it, or I can _make_ you.” the blob of darkness smoked menacingly, the particulates wafting too close to Ranfan’s mouth for her comfort. “But I’d rather not get stuck as a chick, and I’m sure you want to keep your body to yourself, so let’s get going.”

Ranfan stared at the bowl in her hands for a second. “You can sense the stone?” she asked after a moment.

“Well, yeah.” even without most of a face, Greed managed to give her a skeptical look. “I was made out of one, after all, and it’s not like I’ve got much in the way of other senses to pay attention to right now.”

Ranfan frowned at the homunculus in her hands for another few seconds before speaking again. “If you can direct me to the stone, I will bring you to it.” she said at length. “But I cannot guarantee that you will be allowed to have it.”

“I’ll get it.” Greed said confidently. “I’m pretty persuasive.”

Ranfan doubted that, but said nothing as she looked up and tried to gauge how hard it would be to get back up to the rooftops with one arm holding Greed’s bowl. Too difficult to be sure she wouldn’t spill him, and he was currently her surest bet for reaching Ling’s location before nightfall so that would be inadvisable. The streets were full of monsters, though, and with her style of fighting Greed would surely be spilled if she was forced to defend herself. She needed some way to stop that from happening.

“What’s the hold-up?” Greed demanded.

“I need another container for you.” Ranfan said, setting his bowl down and going to look in the dumpster. Nothing was plainly visible, and she didn’t have the time to go rummaging through the trash, not when the sun was already starting to noticeably dip towards the horizon.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Greed huffed.

“Do you want to be spilled from your bowl?” she asked rhetorically. Greed fell silent, and Ranfan began to pat over the things she carried on her person. Her hands landed on her waterskin, and she grimaced. It would be tainted, perhaps irrevocably, but waterskins were replaceable. Ling was not.

She untied the waterskin from her belt, took a deep drink, and began to pour out the remainder.

“You better be able to move pretty fast, girlie.” Greed grumbled as she held the newly emptied waterskin just above the surface of his being. “I don’t want to be in here a second longer than I have to.”

His amorphous body moved strangely, rising like smoke but twisting like water as he funnelled himself into her waterskin. “Alright, girlie.” he said, his voice slightly muffled by the fabric. “Hold me out and turn, I’ll tell you when you’re facing the stone.”

Ranfan was sure she looked like an idiot, turning in a circle in an alley with her waterskin held out in front of her, but it would help her find Ling and nobody was around to see it so she just pushed the feeling away. “There.” Greed said when she was facing nearly the way she’d come from. “The stone’s over that way.”

Ranfan nodded, and screwed the lid back on her waterskin. The homunculus claimed to be convincing, but it was more likely Ling would be able to talk him around into a plan which gave up neither his body nor the stone which would secure him his inheritance. Perhaps he would ask Greed to stay with them. Convincing the homunculus to work with them would be hard, but Ranfan couldn’t deny she’d be grateful to have a second pair of eyes to help keep Ling safe.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so, so tempted to find time to continue this into a greedlingfan au


End file.
